Lightroom Performance – What’s Slow?

Over the past 8 weeks, we’ve learned the pros and cons of non-destructive editing, how different computer components affect different areas of the program, and the ways you can adjust your Lightroom workflow to get the best performance.

In the first post, we said simply saying “Lightroom is slow” doesn’t help, because different areas of the program benefit from different optimizations. In this final post, we’ll summarize the main places to look for improvement, based on what specifically is slow.

Loading Lightroom

Loading the Lightroom program is primarily dependent on your drive speeds, for both the OS/program files and also for the catalog. If you’re finding it slow to load, replacing your spinning drive with an SSD can help, and is a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

Load time is also affected by the size of the catalog, however I wouldn’t recommend breaking the catalog up into smaller catalogs to solve this, as this causes more problems than it solves for most people.

Importing Photos

Importing photos is also primarily limited by file transfer rates. This includes the speed of the source – whether that’s a camera cable, card reader or hard drive – and the speed of the destination drive(s).

For the source, card readers are usually more reliable than direct camera connections, and faster USB card readers (e.g. USB 3) are available to help improve the import speed.

For the destination, there are potentially two drives in play: the main Destination folder and also the Second Copy location. If these are on external drives, the connection speed (USB2 vs USB3, etc.) is usually the main issue. Many photographers send their second copies to a NAS, which can reduce the speed further.

If you choose to add the photos at their current location, this is a lot quicker than moving/copying the files, however take care that the photos are on a hard drive, not a memory card.

Finally, the additional work you ask Lightroom to do immediately after import can prolong the import time, especially conversion to DNG format or building previews.

Building Previews

The time it takes to build previews is largely dependent on your computer’s processing power, but also the drive speed for the catalog and original images.

Improving preview build times frequently requires a newer CPU, so it’s not an easy fix. If you’re running low on RAM and having to use temp files, this may slow you down further, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Resource Monitor (Windows) / Activity Monitor (Mac) to see which computer components are reaching their limits.

The simplest solution for building previews is simply to let them build overnight, or at another time when you don’t need the computer. Also, you only need to build the previews you actually use, so if you never zoom in the Library module, there’s no need to build 1:1 previews.

Viewing In Library

You can speed up viewing in the Library module by building the right size previews in advance. If you need to zoom in, you’ll need 1:1 previews. Otherwise, standard sized previews (set to Auto in Catalog Settings) will be plenty. If you’ve made Develop edits since building the previews, don’t forget to rebuild them, otherwise they’ll have to update when you select the photo.

Once the previews are built, the drive speed for the catalog/previews is next in line. Putting the catalog/previews on an SSD can make Library browsing smoother.

Applying Metadata

Applying metadata is mainly limited by the speed of the drive containing the catalog, so again, putting the catalog/previews on an SSD makes a notable difference.

It also helps to minimize the amount of work Lightroom has to do, especially closing the Collections, Metadata and Keyword panels if you’re not using them.

Don’t forget to optimize the catalog regularly, as this saves Lightroom skipping around the catalog to find the information it needs.

Moving/deleting photos

Moving or deleting photos is also affected by drive speeds – both for the original images as they’re moved, and also the catalog as the image records are updated.

Lightroom also has to redraw the grid view as photos disappear, so switching to a different folder or collection (e.g. Quick Collection) can speed it up slightly.

Finally, rather than trying to delete one photo at a time, consider marking them as rejects and then deleting the rejects when you’ve finished sorting through the photos.

Loading in Develop

Moving over to the Develop module, let’s talk about loading speed. This is primarily dependent on any data that is already cached, then on a mix of processing power (CPU/GPU), screen resolution, drive speeds, and of course, the size and complexity of the image files too.

If you’re moving through photos sequentially (and not too quickly!) in the Develop module in CC 2015.6 / 6.6 or later, Lightroom automatically caches the photos either side in the background to improve loading speed. Once the image data is loaded from the cache (held in RAM), the CPU/GPU is responsible for additional image processing. In this scenario, buying a computer with a faster CPU is your main upgrade potential.

If you’re not moving sequentially, additional factors come into play. The full resolution image data has to be read from the hard drive, so hard drive speed is a major factor. Once the image data is read from hard drive, then initial processing has to be applied, which is dependent on the CPU or GPU processing power.

If you’re using a standard HD resolution monitor (e.g. 1920×1080), it’s worth leaving the GPU disabled in Preferences > Performance, as this increases image loading time without a noticeable benefit, but the smoother interactive performance makes it worth enabling on 4K/5K screens.

The higher the resolution of the image, the more data there is to process, so 50MP images will naturally take longer than 5MP. Some sensors (I’m looking at you, Fuji!) also require more complex calculations.

Whether you’re moving sequentially or skipping around, building Smart Previews in advance and then checking the Preferences > Performance > Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for Image Editing checkbox (in 2015.7 / 6.7 or later) or taking the original photos offline (in 2015.6 / 6.6 or earlier) is the greatest potential improvement, simply because there’s less data to read and process. If you’re struggling for loading times in Develop, this is your first place to start.

Editing in Develop

Once the photo is loaded into the Develop module, as long as you have enough RAM, then you’re primarily limited by your processing power – the CPU or GPU, depending on your screen resolution.

If you’re using a 4K/5K monitor, it’s worth enabling the GPU for smoother interactive performance, but on standard HD resolution monitors (e.g. 1920×1080), you’re better to leave it disabled and let the CPU do the image processing.

The more image data to process, the longer it takes, so you can reduce the preview size to limit the number of pixels Lightroom has to crunch. You can do this by resizing the Lightroom window, enlarging the panels or selecting a smaller zoom ratio (e.g. 1:4).

We also learned that the slider order can make a slight performance difference. Some tasks are more processor intensive than others, so using a pixel editor such as Photoshop for more complex local adjustments can be a good choice. Temporarily disabling complex calculations such as Lens Corrections can also help with interactive performance.

And finally, like the Develop Loading time, utilizing Smart Previews has the biggest potential gains.

Exporting

Like building previews and working in the Develop module, exporting photos is largely limited by the CPU, where multiple cores can help, and also the speed of the hard drive containing your original photos and the export destination.

Syncing to Lightroom Cloud

Finally, sync speed is largely dependent on the speed of your internet connection, especially the upload speed, which is often around 1/10 of the download speed.

That’s it for our performance series! For the full index of posts, see the first post. A free printable eBook will be available soon, so sign up for the newsletter if you’d like to be notified of its release.

Related

Comments

I don’t have any of those problems cited but I’m not using LR6 I’m using LR5.7. LR6 has its problems but speed, downloads, file transfer from HD or Card I don’t have a problem with speed. I purchased LR6 but went back to LR5.7. Maybe it’s just me. I shoot fastpitch girls softball games and have been doing it for 5 years. I used the software that came with my Canon DSLR for awhile until I purchased LR4 and I was hooked. I also have PS CS6 but prefer LR5.7 (simple). I enjoy your articles and have picked up some useful hints. Thanks.

Hi Scott and Victoria! I can confirm that behaviour on my (really fast) Win10 system. If I work several hours in Lightroom CC (latest version) the (lack of) performance during editing is a nightmare. After restarting Lightroom, everything is fine again. It looks like Lightroom has a major resource leak on Windows. Maybe Victoria can shed some light on this topic…???

Thanks for your quick reply, Victoria! I just has a short look into the report forum and I saw lots of threads concerning resource leaks und resulting lack of performance . I will investigate that in further detail and report it in the forum with precise instructions how to reproduce it. Have a nice evening!

For those who are processing jpgs for sports services upload, there is yet another speed up. Using smart previews, and right BEFORE you export, rename the folder/directory your photos reside in. LR in turn will indicate all your photos in the Library mode are smart previews. LR always reverts to the full raw when exporting so taking them off line via the rename is important. Now do the export. In testing a number of 50+ 25Mb raw files my export times were cut approximately in half i.e. 50% improvement. The catch: you are creating exports from smart previews so depending on the needs of those receiving the files this may or may not be acceptable. In my case, I’m exporting to 990 pixels on the long edge at 120 ppi and the resulting jpgs are more than sufficient. YMMV – matt

I tried to update my LR 6.6.1 to LR 6.8, thinking that I was doing a good thing. Instead, the “update failed”, and I was automatically reverted back to 6.0. How do I get back to 6.6.1, and what should I do about 6.8 at this point? Andy

Wow I use a windows 10system with a quad core 4GHz processor, SSDs 32GB RAM and its still slow. I shoot with a 5D mark 3 but I don’t know. I think it’s a windows thing. Mac laptops move faster than this and they don’t have ssd

Most Mac laptops use flash memory, so they’re as fast if not faster than SSD’s. That said, check out the rest of the series to figure out how to fix your performance issues, or use the checklist in the free Performance eBook from https://www.lightroomqueen.com/performance/

I have read this article and your excellent ‘Lightroom CC/6 Performance’ e-book. Both are informative and offer sound, insightful guidance, as usual. However, I came across a statistic in the ‘Hard Drives’ section of the e-book which states “… my 50k catalog is currently 1.6 GB …”. This does not at all square with my catalog statistics, which has a fraction of the images (4k), but occupies nearly 70% more space, at 2.7 GB.

What might account for this large proportional space discrepancy? I regularly exercise the backup/optimize function when exiting, at least once a week.

I have a hunch that it might be due to a small percentage of images which have had a large number of edits applied in LR, and lengthy edit histories including use of the spot tool and adjustment brush.

However, I can’t be certain of this, as there is apparently no tool in LR to help identify or list these, at least that I can see. And I certainly don’t remember every image and how much editing I did on each over the past few years! I will appreciate any advice that you can provide.

A lot of the photos in my catalog aren’t edited, because I only bother to edit 2 star and higher… lots of local adjustments, spot removal and Develop History can make the catalog size balloon considerably.

Of course, all my photos are 4 stars and above and warrant editing (… I only wish)! Since my original comment on 1/29/17 I have gone through some ‘housecleaning’ in LR, selecting (in Grid view) all images in some of my folders with large image counts and where I suspected many of those with long edit-history trails resided. Then I switched to Develop view, clicked on Develop>Clear History>Selected Photos.

Amazingly, this action alone reduced the size of LR’s catalog from 2.7 GB to 834 K, a reduction in size of about 69%! Further, LR now is quicker to open, back up and has a generally snappier feel to it.

Besides pointing out what might be a good best-practice recommendation to not retain long edit histories on many images, it also leads me to an enhancement request for Adobe: providing a means of locating these images with long history trails so they can be managed, reviewed and deleted if necessary.

It strikes me that the feature would fit nicely if added as another of the ‘sort’ options in the Grid view.

I have interesting observation, worth to try on your end if you have problem with Lightroom performance with 4K display on Win10.

When I reset the Windows options in “Settings -> Display -> Change the size of text, apps, and other items” to 100%, the Lightroom performance is much-much better compared to using the Windows default 150% or 200% which is set by the system automatically once high-res display is detected.

Looks like the system override of size for all the controls is causing significant Lightroom performance issues, at least with my config. The downside is that all the controls are bit too small for comfortable use. BUT at least I do not see any performance degradation while working in full screen mode, compared to using HD display.

I have similar setup with i7 CPU, 32GB RAM, SSD disk, AMD FirePro W5170M (2GB). And I do see significant speed improvements with enabled GPU acceleration (especially in Develop mode). Without it there is significant (500ms-2s delay once you move some sliders), with enabled GPU acceleration most of the adjustments are almost instant. But as suggested ,it is easy to try. Just remember that each time you change the GPU acceleration settings in Lightroom, you should exit it and start the program again to apply that change.

Some technical details: Whether you see or don’t see the benefits depends on the time it takes to get the picture data from storage/disk and display it on screen.

disabledGPU acceleration – once you edit the photo, it must be read from your disk (HDD) into memory (RAM) then processed by CPU (based on the sliders/changes you made) and then displayed on screen.

enabled GPU acceleration – once you edit the photo, it is read from your disk (HDD) and send to graphic card memory (VRAM) then graphic card processor (GPU) processes all changes and then it is displayed on screen.

In case your “HDD->VRAM->GPU->display” is faster then “HDD->RAM->CPU->display” then you will see benefits from GPU acceleration. But it is much more complicated, multiple factors play a role here, e.g.: most GPU’s are faster to process graphical operations then CPU’s; loading data into RAM is faster then loading into GPU; how much data is being processed in one batch, etc…